tp's table talk

Wow, this is turning out to take quite some time to get finished. I’m only just getting past the halfway point now and it’s been three weeks. I already have some ideas for some post-Vegas discussion, but I want to get this finished first. So, soldiering on…

There was no answer when I tried to arrange a wake-up call the night before but thankfully the alarm on my cellphone was enough to wake me up. I got showered and dressed and then prodded my roommate to see if he was going to join me. He grunted and waved me off. I wandered downstairs, wolfed down some McDonald’s and ended up with in a cab to the Aladdin with Joaquin, Joe Speaker and Mike.

We found a bunch of bloggers milling around the room and bought in. I knew I was in trouble when I discovered that Otis was sitting to my left. My outlook didn’t get any better when I sat down with the rest of my tablemates and saw another shark at the far end of the table. The line-up looked like this:
Seat 1: Chilly
Seat 2: Scurvy Dog
Seat 3: Hank
Seat 4: Shane
Seat 5: Obie
Seat 6: Ryan
Seat 7: Al
Seat 8: Mike
Seat 9: Yours truly
Seat 10: Otis
(thanks CJ for filling in the blanks). At least Al would keep it entertaining.

The first hand I play is Q5 offsuit from the big blind. The flop is QT4 and I decide to check with my miserable kicker. It’s checked all the way around behind me – four or five players, if I recall correctly. When the turn is a blank, I decide that maybe I have the best hand and bet out for 150 into a similarly sized pot. I’m called by one player who I put on second or third pair. I bet another 300 on the river and am called. I was hoping to take the pot, but still figured I was good. He shows Q9o and takes down the pot. I certainly wasn’t expecting a hand like that to be played from middle position or to be passively check with only two players to act behind him on the flop. Of course, I discovered later that he was a non-blogger and somehow found his way into the tournament, so I guess that explains it. Or I’m just no good at poker. Either was, I’m now down T500 from my initial T2000 stack.

I take another hit when I raise pre-flop with AKo, get one caller and then fold to a bet into a JT9 board. There’s just too many ways for me to be behind there.

With the rapidly escalating blinds at 50/100 and T1075 left in my stack in early position, I am ready to fold to a raise in front of me. But I peek to see AKs and have to reconsider that decision. The table has been playing pretty tight and I may actually be facing KK or AA. But I can’t really fold in this spot. And I was out of position – though I had position on the raiser – so a call was no good. And there was no raise I could make without putting up more than half my chips. So it’s time to push all-in. But the big is surprise is when I am called by the same individual who won the pot off me earlier with Q9. He’s got my covered, but not by much. The original raiser thinks about it for a while, but eventually folds his small pocket pair – the hand I put him on when I raised.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky with the call as he turned over KK. Oh boy, I’m in bad shape. In fact, in as bad as shape as Pauly was when he was almost made Gigli with the same cards against Chris Halverson. Fortunately, I managed to follow Pauly’s example and escaped an early exit by catching an ace on the flop.

Unfortunately, the ridiculously fast structure was eating up my stack at a rapid pace. And with someone at the table going all-in nearly every hand, there weren’t any chances to speculate with mediocre hands. In the end I called PokerProf‘s all-in bet without looking for the big blind. I had less than three bets left, including the blind, so I had to call with pretty much anything. Unfortunately my T3o is pretty much nothing and never caught to get ahead of Prof’s hand. I was out in 37th and quickly headed to the bar to join Al for my first SoCo shot of the weekend.

After rinsing the bad taste of the tournament from my mouth, I signed up to play a little 3/6. As usual, I broke just about even at the end of the session, but I did have the privilege of finally meeting JP, my fellow Canadian down in Vegas. I just wish I could have spent a bit more time chatting with him, particularly since I was dealt KK just after he visited. I limped from early position and had a large field stick around for the KQQ flop. Bingo! I was able to slowplay this into a decent sized pot by getting in some late raises and re-raises against the fish at the table. Unfortunately, she bolted after the hand ended, pretty upset about being beat out of such a large pot. Of course, those extra chips just encouraged me to speculate in a few more of the large family pots but I wasn’t able to take advantage of the pretty juicy table. I do know that John (April‘s friend was having a fairly decent run and I think that continued after I had to head out with my buddy for a rather disappointing meal out on the cobblestones of the Aladdin’s Desert Passage, the faux outdoors market lined with shops and restaurant. At least the surreal painted sky and contornist show added some amusement.

Next: nickels, nickels and more nickels!

O, Canada
So far in this year’s World Series of Poker, 6 Canadians have made it to the final table of an evet, earning a combined $318,005. Of course, this counts only the poker players who still count Canada as their permanent residence, and since there’s little action here for pros, most have moved down to Vegas. It also doesn’t help that three of the most prominent Canadian poker players, Evelyn Ng, Isabelle Mercier and last year’s Player of the Tournament, Daniel Negreau have failed to make a final table this year. They have cashed in some events, but nothing too significant…yet.

The Las Vegas series:
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 1)
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 2)
Day 1 – Sunrise at The Plaza
Day 2 – I … See … Famous People
Day 2 – Storming the Castle
Day 3 – The Main Event
Day 3 – A Bucket of Nickels and the Shrimp Sundae
Day 3 – Nugget Poker
Day 4 – Finally, A Win!
Day 4 – Komol O
Day 4 – A Night in ‘The Suite’
Day 5 – Goodbye Las Vegas

I apologize for the delay in the continuation of the Vegas epic, but a combination of this cold and a busy schedule has kept me from the keyboard. But I’m here now to give you, the faithful reader, the next installment. I’m halfway there now, just six posts to go.

When we arrived at the Excalibur, the first thing on my mind was getting some food. So Pablo and I stopped at the Sherwood Forest for a little grub. A few minutes later, we were joined by the blogfather himself, who, frankly, looked rather the worse for wear. But he was hoping that some food might keep him going. Dinner was the standard burger fare, but it was nice to relax for a bit and chat with Pablo and Iggy, even if Iggy was barely coherent. I decided to pay for dinner and would later reap the karmic rewards.

With the meal done, it was time to head to the poker room. Iggy was able to snag the last seat at a blogger infested table, but Pablo and I ended up playing beside each other at a 2/6 spread limit game. We may not have had many bloggers at the table to chat with, but that meant we had that many more people to win money from. And as most of the other players were rife with tells that Pablo and I analyzed all night, there were many opportunites to amass some chips.

My first opportunity came in a heads-up, capped pre-flop hand. I have KK and was pretty sure my opponent doesn’t have aces. Of course, I have a hard time being sure in these situations. I have the habit of assigning players bigger hands than they actually have, so I was trying to make a concious decision not to assume the worst. The flop comes T high and I feel pretty good about my chances. Unfortunately, my bet is raised and now I’m concerned about facing those aces. But, the pot is already pretty big, so I decide I have to call him down. No big cards on the turn or river and I discover that he has pocket tens and hit a set on the flop. Now, I liked getting a $50 pot built pre-flop with a 4-1 edge, but I just couldn’t see how I could get away from the hand with no ace and no straight or flush possibilities after the flop. So instead of winning a nice little pot, I’ve dug myself a nice little hole.

I win a few small pots, taking advantage of some good reads on a few players. The next big hand comes with JJ in the big blind. With six players in the pot ahead of me, I decide not to raise, wanting to see how the flop comes. It comes KKx and I’m not terrible happy with it. The man to my left bets out and it’s folded around to me. Somehow I convince myself that it may be a bluff attempt and I raise. He calls and I have to believe that he actually has a king, if a weak one. But the turn is a beautiful J and light-bulbs are going off in my head. I bet, he raises and I re-raise. He just calls. Can he really have matched his second card? The river was an ace, I believe, and I was a little concerned about AK. I check the river, he bets and I call. He did in fact have the king, but he also had the case jack to have a better full house. And another big pot is being pushed away from me. When he didn’t cap the turn, I was feeling pretty good about my hand but somehow on the river I could sense my impending doom. Of course, I shouldn’t have played the hand the way I did on the flop, but it still stung to view my depleted stacks.

But the card gods had not completely abandoned me. I limp into another hand with 99, hoping to hit a set and pull some money off the relatively juicy table. There are a few other limpers as well and I have my fingers crossed. The flop turns over in slow motion, 9, 8, 9. Bingo! My eyes do a full-on cartoon bulge and I subtly try to show Pablo my good fortune. Thankfully, the rest of the table is completely oblivious and there is actually a bet and a call in front of me. I call myself and hope for continued betting on the later streets. Of course, I’m panicking because I don’t know if it will count as a high hand if everyone else folds. So, I check on the turn and river because I may make another $20-30 from my opponents, but I stand to make more if I get to spin the wheel. I gleefully flip my cards over and pull in a small pot.

But now I am facing the wheel. Dollar signs are flashing in my head as I hope to follow up the success of two other bloggers who have already hit quads that night at the Excalibur. Most of the prizes are weighted towards the low end (20-40) but there are a few $100 and double and triple spots. I heaved the wheel around and watched it tick down to a lovely $100 payday. Suddenly my bad session has been erased and I can enjoy my table of easily read players. But first I needed to come down from my gambler’s high, which took about 5 minutes, when I suddenly remembered to tip the dealer, who not only dealt me the cards but helped me set up the spin. I tracked him down and slipped him a red chip.

Unfortunately, that was the last exciting moment of the night. I played for a few more hours, and had April and her friend John join our table towards the end, but I was only involved in a few pots and won only the small ones. Eventually most of the bloggers started filtering out and I joined a Pauly-led quest for Krispy Kreme. As the adreneliene from the quads had faded, the sugary goodness was a nice boost to help get me back to The Plaza.

next: the Main Event, a fellow Canadian, my first Vegas SoCo

O, Canada
Despite many things we do have to pay tax on, Canadians do not have to pay any taxes on our gambling winnings, unless they constitute our primary form of income. So that means we can make a few grand (or a few dozen grand) on the side playing poker and do not owe the government a single cent.

The Las Vegas series:
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 1)
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 2)
Day 1 – Sunrise at The Plaza
Day 2 – I … See … Famous People
Day 2 – Storming the Castle
Day 3 – The Main Event
Day 3 – A Bucket of Nickels and the Shrimp Sundae
Day 3 – Nugget Poker
Day 4 – Finally, A Win!
Day 4 – Komol O
Day 4 – A Night in ‘The Suite’
Day 5 – Goodbye Las Vegas

Still no air conditioning here and my place and I’m still feeling like death warmed over (pun intended). But, I was back in the office today, so I suppose I can finish off a post here before I collapse.

After not getting to bed until about 10am, I knew I wasn’t going to make the start of the 2nd World Series of Poker event like I planned. I decided I’d sleep as long as a needed and I’d catch up to people after that. For better or worse, my body decided that three and a half hours was plenty of sleep, at least in Vegas, and I woke up with a mild hangover that actually got fairly painful before I got some food into me.

As for the food, my buddy and I went back to the MGM to eat at the Grand Wok. My friend is vegetarian, so he thought we’d be safe at an Asian restaurant and while they didn’t have many options, he was able to get some decent food. A nice big bowl of pho was a good cure for my hangover and I was soon ready to hit the strip. To reduce cabfare I decided we’d walk up to Flamingo St. and then hop the cab out to the Rio. It took a lot longer than I expected, but I did manage to wander around New York, New York and the Bellagio for a while. The Bellagio poker room was hopping and we spent a bit of time watching the 30/60 games. I could actually pick out a few tells on the players at the table, but I don’t really think I’d be calm enougha t those stakes to take advantage.

But looking in at the big games at the Bellagio just whet my appetite for the bigger games happening at the Rio. We found a cab and headed on out to the Rio.

The first thing that strikes you about the event …oh wait…where is the event? Oh, there’s a sign. Let’s head that way. Hmmm…there’s another sign. There’s a sign every 20 feet on the ten minute trek to get to the room where they are hosting the event. But once you get there, it is a marvel to behold. Two hundred plus tables are packed into a cavernous convention room and every where you look is green felt. And everywhere you look is a famous poker player. I’d recommend taking a look at the excellent photo gallery at lasvegasvegas.com to get an idea of what it is like.

Two tables from the entrance was Greg Raymer, sitting at a table and chatting on his cellphone. I explained to my friend that this was the world champion and he went over to sweat him for a little bit. I continued my journey through the wonderland of poker to see who else I could spot. There’s Matusow, looks like he’s in pre-meltdown mode. Oh, that looks like Scott Fischman, he’s smaller than he looks on TV. And David Williams, yeah, he’s still in it too.

Of course, it was almost 6pm so many players had long busted out, and I was a bit disappointed to hear that I’d missed Negreanu, who is a bit of a hometown hero for me. But, Toronto was still represented, as I spotted – ok, maybe oogled – Evelyn Ng seated at a tournament table. She probably had one of the larger crowds around her table and I felt bad with all the picture taking she had to endure. I’m sure few of the pro players had it much better. But she wasn’t paying them much mind, actually pulling a magazine and reading at the table – while listening to her iPod, no less. Of course, she never lost focus on the game and used her big stack to accumulate more chips. I was a bit astounded when she started applying her makeup at the table, shortly before the dinner break. I guess she knew she would be mobbed when the tables broke and she wanted to look her best.

After sweating Evelyn for a little bit, I finished my lap of the room, spotting Howard Lederer and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot in the process. I watched for a while as the ESPN crew set up the final table for the next day’s play. But, I was still trying to find the bloggers. I was hoping that at least one of them was still in this thing.

And there was, but only one. I eventually ran into Pablo and he showed me where Otis was sitting. I met a few other bloggers and chatted for a bit, but Otis was the real show, even though he was short stacked and folding most hands. I saw he win a couple hands, but it wasn’t too long before his table was broken up and he was moved elsewhere. The blogger gallery followed – after a short detour to see Phil Hellmuth – and we got to watch Otis struggle against the rising blinds.

The Rio was also running a significant number of side games as well (and began announcing a mega-satellite for the main event) and some of the bloggers decide to go see if we could watch one of the no limit tables. The Rio was organized enough to have all the games listed on a giant screen, so it wasn’t too hard to find. But after watching thousands of dollars change owners all in the space of a few hands, we decided that watching Otis might actually be a bit less stressful.

On the way back we passed James Woods chatting a mile a minute on his cellphone. A few people stopped to talk poker with him and it was great to see just how enthusiastic he is about the game. I’d apparently missed Tobey Maguire earlier and he was not nearly as outgoing. Woods wasn’t the only famous grey-haired railbird I saw either, as TJ Cloutier passed by Otis’ table a little bit earlier

Unfortunately, all the blogger support wouldn’t save Otis. He ended up all-in with AK vs. TT and got no help flop, turn or river. Still, from all that I saw, Otis played a great tournament and can hold his head up high after lasting longer than 80% of the field.

But that was enough spectating for us. The collected bloggers decided it was time to head to the Excalibur a little early to try to find us a poker game.

Next: dinner with a midget, spinning the wheel, mmm…donuts

O, Canada
Canada has no dollar bill but instead has one dollar and two dollar coins in regular circulation, called the loonie and the toonie respective – there is an image of a loon on the dollar coin and we weren’t all that creative when the two dollar coin was introduced. On my first night playing at The Plaza, I was confused to see a Canadian dollar at the table. Apparently one of the bloggers met a couple of Canadians in a game in Atlantic City that were having a great old time and he ended up buying a loonie from them to use as a chip protector. At the time I was extremely confused as I tried to figure out how I dropped a dollar on the table after being relatively certain I’d left all my Canadian money in my bags.

The Las Vegas series:
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 1)
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 2)
Day 1 – Sunrise at The Plaza
Day 2 – I … See … Famous People
Day 2 – Storming the Castle
Day 3 – The Main Event
Day 3 – A Bucket of Nickels and the Shrimp Sundae
Day 3 – Nugget Poker
Day 4 – Finally, A Win!
Day 4 – Komol O
Day 4 – A Night in ‘The Suite’
Day 5 – Goodbye Las Vegas

Wow, *I* even got a mention on Card Club in the PokerProf segment, as a Canadian blogger down in Vegas. Of course, they forgot to mention that JP from Vancouver was also there. And he finished higher than I did. He went out 25th, if I recall correctly. And just to set the record straight, I went out in 37th and was actually knocked out by the Prof himself. At least, I think it was the Prof. And I left my bounty for him, so I better be correct. Of course, I went straight to the SoCo after the tournament, so things got slightly blurry. I will try to piece it all together when I get to that post.

Where was I? Oh yes, I was just going up to introduce myself to Pauly. Of course, I couldn’t have picked a better person. Pauly greeted me like an old friend and introduced me to a few of the other bloggers that were standing around. After a bit of chatting he explained that the bloggers had a private table upstairs and the game we were witnessing on the floor was just overflow. Well, a crazy straddling, blind raising overflow. helixx was heading upstairs, so I tagged along with him.

Now, half the people reading this were actually up in that room at some point, but for the rest of you, I will try to describe it. It was up the stairs from the poker room and sat overlooking the sportsbook. This gave us a great view of the casino – including the wall of television screens showing sporting events – while no one could really see our game. It also made us “cool”. I’m not sure who managed to secure such a nice spot for a private 2/4 mixed game, but it was a coup. I don’t imagine I’ll get many chances to sit at such a well situated table.

As I walk in the door, the first thing I see is a blond haired lady lecturing the table on the finer points of poker. This must be the infamous Felicia. I wait for her to finish her rant and walk up to introduce myself. I get the initial blank look that would become all too familar over the weekend, but as soon as the name clicks she gets up and greets me warmly. And yes, who would have expected warmth from Felicia. ;) She is kind enough to introduce me to Bill Rini who was sitting beside her and whose belly I had observed at work earlier in the day. But I’m still so nervous that I’m almost shaking (god I hope it was almost). I decide to watch the game a little bit and just try to calm myself.

Of course, Felica will have none of that and she tells me to get in the game and perhaps sensing my reticence, she introduces me to the table. I order a beer, in the hopes taking a little bit of the edge. I take a few sips and start feeling appreciably better. In fact, I’m thinking that it might be time for me to sit down and play a little poker.

Now, at this point I am going to have to make a confession. I have never hidden the fact that I was a Vegas virgin going into this trip. But I was also essentially a casino poker newbie. I played four hours last year at the temporary casino at the CNE and had got a bit of live game exposure at the Red Hot Poker Tour in early May, but, beyond that, all my poker experience came from home games and online. So I was expecting to be quick outclassed at the Vegas tables. Particularly with all the veteran bloggers playing.

I end up sitting down between Pablo – a friend of Gracie’s (she-verb) – and PokerProf. A quick round of introductions at the table reveals Steve (Beer City Poker), Gracie, Mrs. Can Hang, the afore-mentioned Mr. Rini and Felicia, and someone in the nine seat that I can’t recall…

This will probably be a common occurrence in my posts. Please don’t be offended if I’ve forgotten you were at the table. I tried to take notes, but I didn’t get a chance to do so until I got back to my room at night. So it was inevitable that I would miss some names. My apologies for that. If you remember that you were supposed to be in the report, please drop me a line and I’ll add you right in. In fact, through reading other people’s posts, I’ve recalled that the forgotten player was pokernerd.

Names weren’t the only thing I forgot. I can’t remember how much of the action went. I do know that I was there for rounds of Omaha 8, Stud and Stud 8. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to play Razz, which I’ve grown quite found of, in a perverse sense. I know I played pretty tight.

I do remember taking my first live casino hand (though I forget what my cards were or if I even went to showdown).
I do recall bluffing Pablo off a hand with a re-raise, which gave me some confidence that I wasn’t playing too far over my head.
I remember chatting with PokerProf about Vegas and his Lord Admiral Radio reports. I tried to convince him he was becoming a cult figure in Canada, but he would have none of it. He was in pretty rough shape and I could tell it had already been a rough night.
I remember talking with a barely concious Beer City.
I remember Pauly coming by and playing Rini’s chips. I remember the great Al himself joining the game. He was a drunken maniac and was all over the place.
And I remember voices yelling up at us from the sportsbook below. Turns out some bloggers at the bar there were giving us a piece of their minds.

But like all good things, the table eventually came to an end. Players were reaching the end of their stamina and pulling out. And unfortunately we couldn’t find anyone to fill their seats. I had only been there for a couple hours but could see that people had been partying hard for some time. We thank the dealer and head down to cash out. I meet CJ in passing and thank him for organizing everything. I’m walking with Felicia and Al, trying to find everyone else. It looks like they’ve already left. Felicia says that Glenn should be arriving soon and he’ll be able to drive us back to the plaza. But Al is determined to find his wife, so we begin the search.

We end up outside the back entrance of the casino, at the opposite end from the taxi stand. Felicia is trying to explain to Al that we could get a ride when Glenn arrives, but Al is on a mission. We acquiesce and agree to take a cab back to the Plaza. Felicia decides to leave a message with the poker room to have Glenn join us there. So, we begin the walk around the casino, but Al insists on trying to wave every cab down, insisting that his wife is in one of them. Felicia and I try to tell him that they are long gone and attempty to ensure that he doesn’t wander out into traffic. But he seems content to wave his arms and scream from the curb. Eventually we make it around to the cab stand and catch a lift back downtown.

Now, it turns out that some people in his wife’s cab did see him stumbling along the sidewalk, but as their cab was full, saw no reason to stop. I guess Al was still more aware than I gave him credit for.

Next: the smell of downtown, negative EV, why is it light out?

O, Canada
I’ll go with a simple one this time. Canada has ten provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) and three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut). Provinces are largely equivalent to states while territories are controlled mostly by the federal government.
Another bit of advice. If you are arguing over the number of provinces with a Canadian (*cough*, John – April‘s friend, not the other John), it is probably a good idea to concede the point to the Canadian. It’s entirely possible he is more familar with the issue.

The Las Vegas series:
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 1)
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 2)
Day 1 – Sunrise at The Plaza
Day 2 – I … See … Famous People
Day 2 – Storming the Castle
Day 3 – The Main Event
Day 3 – A Bucket of Nickels and the Shrimp Sundae
Day 3 – Nugget Poker
Day 4 – Finally, A Win!
Day 4 – Komol O
Day 4 – A Night in ‘The Suite’
Day 5 – Goodbye Las Vegas

Where to begin? I’m facing a pad full of notes and I’m finding the prospect of getting them all written down rather daunting. And there is the huge number of posts from other people to catch up on, and I think that the flood has barely begun there. I just broke things out myself and it looks like I have material for about ten posts. At least I have the latest episode of Card Club to listen to while I write this up.

I guess the key is to start from the beginning. Getting to Vegas went pretty smoothly. In fact, it was probably the quickest I’ve ever been able to get on a plane at Pearson. The flight was not so smooth, as we encountered a lot of turbulence about an hour out of Vegas, but I discovered that turbulence doesn’t bother me too much. I could also see a raging thunderstorm outside the right hand windows, but fortunately it never got too close. In fact, it was probably one of the most beautiful natural sights that I’ve ever seen.

We landed in Vegas at about 11:30 local time and got shovelled into one of the airport shuttles. Not a good idea. Sure it was cheap, but if you are going downtown, you’ll be on the shuttle for a good long time as he drops everyone and their dog off before you. And it hurt to see us go right by the MGM Grand immediately upon leaving the airport, knowing that I would have to make my way back as soon as I checked in. It was after midnight by the time we got to the Plaza and I was getting a bit frustrated. But we got checked in quickly, dropped off the bags and hopped a cab for the return trip to the strip. Actually, we got in the taxi line and waited for five minutes without a single cab arriving. Then we were accosted by another shuttle driver who was promising another cheap ($5) ride back to the strip. This time there only four people though, and we convinced the two LA natives who got in with us that they wanted to go to the MGM.

Now, when we were driving up the strip on the way to the hotel, my friend and I were marvelling at the size and number of hotels. But I don’t think it was until I stepped into the MGM Grand that I really got an idea for a scope of Vegas. Banks of slot machines stretched out as far as the eye could see. And then when we started walking down towards the poker room, we realized it was even bigger than first expected. There were multiple sections with table games, a handful of bars and a different restaurant every thirty feet. Then you consider that this is duplicated in the dozens of big casinos along the strip and you finally get an idea of just how many people come to Vegas every day.

After ten minutes of walking, we finally get to the poker room and sportsbook. My friend takes off to continue his tour of the strip. And here is where the nerves start to kick in. I do pretty well in a group of people, but I have a bit more difficulty when walking into a room full of strangers. And while I’ve chatted with a few of the bloggers who were going to be there, I hadn’t met a single one of them in person. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I walked into the MGM poker room. Actually, I had a hard time recognizing anyone when I first walked in, but then I spotted the unmistakeable locks of Al Can’t Hang. I take a deep breath and then march over the table to say “Hi, I’m a complete stranger and it’s nice to meet you” or some variation thereof. Then I spot Dr. Pauly standing over nearer to the bar and decide he’ll be an easier target. Funnily enough, as I write this, Pauly is giving his update from the Aladdin on Card Club Radio.

I’m going to have to take a break here. I’ve been blogging and chatting for three hours, ever since I woke up. But I’m starving now and need to get some grub. I will continue this post later this evening.

Next up: Meeting Pauly and the game upstairs

O, Canada
With each Vegas post I’ll include a little fact about Canada, to help educate everyone who was giving me a hard time because of my nation of birth. First fact, when I got back to Toronto, I saw on the news that there was a heat warning for Monday, and while I didn’t see the exact temperature, it certainly felt hotter when I got off the plane than when I got on it. So Iggy, that is why I wear short sleeves. I realize that many of the comments were made in jest, but I still thought I would put together this short educational series.

The Las Vegas series:
Day 1 – A Grand Ol’ Time (part 2)
Day 1 – Sunrise at The Plaza
Day 2 – I … See … Famous People
Day 2 – Storming the Castle
Day 3 – The Main Event
Day 3 – A Bucket of Nickels and the Shrimp Sundae
Day 3 – Nugget Poker
Day 4 – Finally, A Win!
Day 4 – Komol O
Day 4 – A Night in ‘The Suite’
Day 5 – Goodbye Las Vegas

Ambitious, eh?

I’m sitting here at McCarran airport writing my first (of many) trip report for the latest blogger gathering. I have over a dozen pages of notes that I’ll need to write up when I get back to Toronto, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had all trip to connect to the internet. Not that I’ve been looking too hard prior to now. There has been no shortage of things to do inVegas. And I’m going to be ignoring the “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” adage and wrting up all my adventures.

But, I’ve only got a few minutes before my flight, so I’ll just cover the basics. I met probably 40-50 of the bloggers in attendance and managed to get in some decent conversations with haf of those. I finished down $50 at the poker tables, not counting the blogger tournament (which was a crapshoot, not to take anything from Bill Rini). If I disregard the 1/2 no-limit table I played through the night Thursday, then I’d actually have turned a profit. In fact, if Derek hadn’t hit his 4-outer to bust me, I’d have been in good shape. The -EV games were kind to me, showing a small profit even though I didn’t play for very long. Or perhaps because I didn’t play them for very long. I bet $50 on a hand of blackjack. I played in five different poker rooms. I partook of the Al Can’t Hang Experience and lived to tell the tale. And I saw the sunrise three out of four nights.

But, my flight is boarding now, so I’ll have to elaborate at another time.

In the off chance that anyone still in town is reading this, it seems I forgot to grab a dollar chip from The Plaza. If you are still there and grab me a chip, please do so and leave a comment. I’ll arrange to get it from you later. Of course, if no one does that, well, then I’ll just have to come back some time.

As expected from bloggers on April Fool’s, there were a few tall tales spun today. Here are some of them from across poker bloggerdom.

Badblood – the first blogger to report an arrest.
F Train – underground clubs are called that for a reason.
Double As – now you see it, now you don’t.

Frankly, I expected a few more of these. Of course, my reading list isn’t as large as it used to be, so I may have missed a few.

And unfortunately I did not win a trip to the WSOP last night. But I do have to confess it’s much easier to write an interested tournament report when you are making it up as you go along. I was supposed to play in the tournament, but the casino host I mention in the beginning once again managed NOT to get my invitation sorted out.

In other news, Pauly just announced an amazing new gig over at Tao of Poker. At first I thought it was just another fake, like most big announcements made today, but then I realized that he couldn’t possibly start an April Fool’s post by saying it wasn’t an April Fool’s post. Oops. Congratulations Pauly! It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving fellow.

In non-poker related April Fool’s news, the best effort of the day had to be the new production diary over at KongIsKing.net where Peter Jackson and crew announce two sequel films to the new King Kong where the Son of Kong ends up in Germany during World War II fighting mutated Nazi creatures. A very elaborate prank pulled off masterfully.